STILL wont eat veggies!!?? HELP!

[mrgoogls]

hey guys. Phoenix is going on around a year and a half soon. he eats his crix like crazy and occasional super/meal/wax worms. but will not touch his greens no matter what i do! i have tried:
dipping it in water and hand feeding
placing in basking spot
adding different colors
moving it with my finger
adding a few worms to it(he just picks them out. i tried it so many time he got better at just getting around the greens i think...lol)
none of this really worked. once in a while i can get him to eat a few bites or carrot/squash or grape when i hand feed. but only a few bites. otherwise the only veggies/fruit i can get in him is when he didnt eat anything i fed him all natural squash baby food with a sryng. that was about 4 months ago. since he is eating criz but not veggies. he didnt like the feeding that way(i think he liked the food, just not the sryng part) so i dont want to do it again. but if i really have to i will. i am worried becae as they get older they are supposed to have mostly veggies and bit of live food. he has almos all live food because he wont eat his veggies. it also effects his pooping. with all that protien but no fider it binds him up. the only way he poops is in about a 30-45 minute bath with me rubbing his belly the ENTIRE time. and that gets old very very fast. pleeeease help. i just dont know what to do anymore!!!

 

[Mustashio]

I am so with you on this one!! My guy is almost a year old, and so I don't know if it is just him slowing down as he enters adulthood, or if it is early brumation or what! He used to love his vegi's and would also eat 20-30 crickets per feeding! We also switched every other feeding with Phoenix worms which he liked too. Then I tried to switch up the feeders a bit and tried a sample of hornworms, butterworms and wax worms and it seemed he turned his nose up at crickets for awhile. He'd eat them but would rather have worms. Shortly after that, he stopped eating vegi's all together. Like you, I have tried putting the worms in the salads, making a "dressing" of baby food or yogurt to coat the vegis, hand feeding, switching up the greens, everything! Nothing is working. He is eating crickets with the butterworms and phoenix worms fed only occasionally. But he won't eat the greens. I even tried putting it in a shallower dish so he doesnt have to pick through the greens to get to the butternut squash, which is what he used to do! Still nothing. And youre right...pooping is being affected. He used to poop (almost on command) every day in the bath. Now it is lucky if it is once every few days. I don't think he is bound up, but still makes me worry! I feel like there are so many posts about dragons not eating their vegis, but like you said, I've tried all the commonly known tricks and they still aren't working. Only thing I haven't done is the "tough love" idea of not giving crickets until they eat some vegis. I'm just not into forced starvation! Anyway, I'll be following your post to see if anyone else can come up with anything. Or maybe other foods that have done the trick to spark the appetite!

Good luck!
~Jill and Mustashio

 

[mrgoogls]

I know. it seems liek so many people have this problem! As for the tough love, at this age they should only get live food 2-3 times per week anyways. because it should mostly be veggies. buti am feeding 2-1 times per week in an attempt to get him to eat veggies. not even that works for me. just just like slows down his metabolism or something and doesnt eat until the crickets. im afriad to not feed him any less than 1 per week. i also tried the baby food on the greens and he didnt even look. i am going tomorow to get some mealies to try that for the 1000th time. if anything my leo can finish the mealies cuz they are so small for my beardie. i would need 1000 to make a meal lol. but its a good thing to attemp to get him to eat his veggies. anyone with any ideas please help us out??

 

[mrgoogls]

okay. i got some mealies today. putting those in the salad didnt help at all. he just picked around them. i also bought some things he has never tried before. bok choy and parsly. that didnt help either. i also got a red bell pepper for color. even though h had green ones and didnt like it i though the bright red might help. he ate one peice of it and i got soooo excited but nothing else. so now i am totally out of ideas. somebody please help?!?!?!?

 

[sydsinger1012]

If your beardie won't eat its veggies then i would get it bearded dragon food. It is as good as veggies and will help growth and color . It is just like veggie and fruits and can also replace there crickets!! It works ive used it with my beardie and he loves it! You can buy it at almost any pet store .it is 4-6 dollars and has olot in it!!!

 

[mrgoogls]

i heard that the pellets shouldnt be used as a staple. only as a supplement if you want(not nessicary)

 

[James8]

My beardie is about 4 months old now.. Had him for a couple weeks now while he loves his crickets and worms he also will not touch his veggies. Ive tried kale, lettuce, squash, carrots, green beans, and sweet potato every morning and nothing... I am concerned that this trend will continue as well and not sure how to deal with it... Do i just stop feeding crickets to force him to eat veggies? Or continue to be patient and keep offering the veggies...

 

[Mustashio]

James8, I wouldn't worry too much about a 4 month old not eating vegi's. They don't always eat them when they are that young. I would just keep offering them every day, even if it means they get dumped in the garbage every day. Mustashio did that when he was little, and then one day, it was as if he discovered greens were good and he'd gobble them up to the point where he would eat 2 bowls full of greens and vegis a day! Right now he is about 11 months old, and he suddenly stopped eating his vegis and that is my concern. He used to love them now he doesn't and since he is nearing sub adulthood, that is when they should be eating more vegis than bugs.

~Jill

 

[James8]

Thanks Jill! I will keep offering the veggies and keep my eye on it and hopefully she will take too them eventually.

 

[BlazeDarkling]

I feed my dragon the pellets as a staple of his diet and hes doing wonderful hes growing like a weed but as for ideas maybe cut them up smaller or try a lazes pointer my dragon chases it like a bug so maybe pointing it at the food would help or if your really brave try blending some bugs with some veggies and make a dragon baby food . my boy eats food great any food haha good luck with your dragon .

 

[Mustashio]

This is a little off topic, but may be something to look at with your dragons. Mustashio usually poops only in his baths, which he gets daily, so I didn't really think much of it when he slowed down his poops from one a day to one every 3 days. Especially since he stopped eating the vegis. I figured since all he was eating was protein and wasn't getting much fiber, that he was just slowing down in the digestion and excrement department.

Well, today when he pooped I decided to do the old "paper towel squish test" and realized his urates were rock hard--nice and white, but rock hard and chalky. Odd, since he gets baths daily and really shouldn't be dehydrated by any means. I posted about it and some of the moderators stated that some dragons just don't absorb water through their vents and can get dehydrated despite daily baths. OF COURSE I would have such a stubborn little dragon! Another reason for hard chalky urates is too much calcium, so I can cut that back a bit, but I just thought I'd mention it on this post too, since it may be related to not eating his vegi's and getting water from that source as well. We are going to try a medicine dropper of water orally and see if that helps.

Darn dragons...its a good thing they are so stinkin' cute and fun to have around! Love 'em like crazy, but they may drive me to my death with worry!

~Jill

 

[Bestpittbull]

Ditto, my beardie won't even look at his green's seem's he only like's meal worms (eats them like they were candy) he sometimes will eat a few cricket's when he corner's them. well he will have to eat it someday but not today.

 

[mrgoogls]

well, i am taking him to the vet for his yearly checkup within a week -3 weeks. so i can ask there. maybe they can help. otherwise nothing i have tryed has worked.

 

[mrgoogls]

also, i forgot to ask, any of you who have beardies around a year and a half old, how many crix do you feed? i am feeding about once a week and many as he eats in around 10 min. i have heard some people give like 8 per day, or like 20 every other day. but that seems really low. even though they are supposed to be 80-20 greens-live. it still seems low. so just how often/much crix do you feed. or if you use like supers as a staple or whatever how many/much? this is for a year and a half old dragon. so if your dragon is like 5 months old and eating 150 crix a day through 2-3 feeding great. i already when through buying 1500 crix every week and a half. glad that i am mostly on greens. lol.

 

[Mustashio]

Can't tell you much about a 1.5yo beardie, mine is almost 1 year and still eats 15-20 crix a day....

But I did get Tashi to eat some greens by this little trick I read on another board. Cut up the greens (collard is the easiest since it is a little more firm) into small squares. I then slid the edge of the green just under his lip on the side of his jaw. It is easier with a firmer piece, but eventually he opened and chewed it up. I fed him probably about 7-8 pieces like this. You could tell he was perturbed by it, but at least he ate SOME vegi's! Also the canned pumpkin has worked a little bit too. Although he has become stubborn enough now to know not to lick it off his nose! What a little turd!